Appeal Sent to Soviet Officials on Behalf of Nashpitz, Tsitlionok

April 28, 1975

NEW YORK (Apr. 27)

As part of a concerted drive to reverse the sentence imposed on Mark Nashpitz and Boris Tsitlionok, New York City Commissioner of Human Rights Eleanore Holmes Norton appealed to Soviet officials to allow Nashpitz and Tsitlionok to join their families in Israel.

In her appeal she wrote: “Despite vast differences in political and cultural traditions among the nations of the world, there is increasingly a world consensus that the right to peacefully petition one’s government, to speak without fear and to move freely are basic rights owed every human being. Those committed to these principles believe that national boundaries cannot limit their application. Thus, men and women throughout the world are deeply concerned by the cases of Dr. Mark Nashpitz and Boris Tsitlionok who were sentenced to exile for attempting to demonstrate for the right to emigrate from the Soviet Union.”

City Commissioner of Investigations Nicholas Scopetta also cabled General Procurator Rudenko protesting the severe sentence of five years in exile.

Meanwhile, appeals by Nashpitz and Tsitlionok from their five-year exile sentences have been rejected by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, according to reports received here. The two Jewish activists were convicted for participating in a demonstration for freer emigration for Soviet Jews.